Calzone

I needed a quick lunch so I threw together a calzone using Jiffy pizza crust mix, jarred pizza sauce, Italian season, pepperoni and mozzarella cheese.  Baked for about 20 min it came out crispy and gooey.  I plan to make some fro Pri and Zion Friday while waiting at the church for Operation Christmas Child drop offs.

Zion, Pri, Sheron and Jesse

Cupcakes

white cakes with chocolate glaze, buttercream frost and Royal icing roses/ pansies.

Baking

Brazilian chocolate cake with cherry preserves and semi sweet chocolate filling, semi sweet chocolate glaze and hand made gum paste flowers

Every since I started cake decorating, my cooking has been a little less exciting.  I love expressing myself in the arts of decorating.  My family are still happy with their meals, but I have lost my zeal for trying to create new and exciting foods.  I find myself trying new cake recipes and techniques rather than experimenting on savory dishes.  Not that I want my fascination of desserts to go away, but I sure would like to make room for my love of cooking.

Wishing Well

Dark Chocolate cake with Chocolate Butter Cream frosting, Filled with Chocolate Butter Cream and semi sweet chocolate chips.  Top is Butter Cream with a dark chocolate, butter cream well covered in fondant with blue piping gel water and the arch is made of gum paste and accented with butter cream piping.

One of my closest friends (Heather) surprised me with a new mixer.  I made her this cake as a thank you....funny how my plans for a cake and the way my cakes turn out are different.  I can replicate one I see in a book but cannot seem to get one from thought to reality as seamlessly as I would like....

My Latest Cake

This is my first rolled fondant cake. I made my own fondant which killed (literally) my mixer. The worst part is I really didn't have to have a mixer to make it.  Another thing marked under lessons learned.

Two chocolate cakes.  Covered the bottom in fondant.  I used frosting to level the bottom layer because it was already too thin.  The top was a round cake leveled, shaped and torted. Filled with buttercream.

Really was sloppy job, but again it was my first try with fondant and my details hid a multitude of imperfections.

Added Scroll Work

Printed Birthday Wish

Added Pink Shell Border

Finished Cake for the Totally Spies! In Paris themed party

Hailey making her birthday wish

With every cake I make, with every new technique I apply I learn something different.  A short cut, how to fix mistakes, what I would change if I were to make it again.

Time

I have been spending a lot of time in my kitchen lately.  I chose to take a cake decorating class and all my time seems to be baking, making frosting or trying a technique from class or from the book.  I guess we invest in what we care about...I need to be good at something.

The Zucchini bread pudding turned out delicious.  Just a basic bread pudding recipe with zucchini bread in place of french.